


Freckles and Constellations

by Nelliandreph



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/F, Songfic, Starstruck, dodie - Freeform, freckles and constellations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:27:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23858335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nelliandreph/pseuds/Nelliandreph
Summary: Seven sings in front of Voyager's crew, but the words are meant for Kathryn.
Relationships: Kathryn Janeway/Seven of Nine
Comments: 2
Kudos: 49





	Freckles and Constellations

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote an honest-to-goodness songfic. Dodie's "Freckles and Constellations" wouldn't leave me alone today and all the words in italics come from this song. Enjoy!

Normally, Kathryn would have avoided the annual Voyager Talent Show at all costs. She’d lock herself in her Ready Room, pretend to have a headache, or insist that the diagnostics she was running were urgent.

Today, however, Kathryn was willingly watching excruciating acts of a startlingly large range of so-called ‘talents.’ The Delaney sisters performed a mirror-image mime act. Harry had treated them to his new concerto. The Doctor had written an aria for the occasion. She was surprised to see that Tom had put together a magic act and that Vorik recited an oddly moving monologue from Hamlet.

She had to wait until the very end of the show for Seven to take the stage. When Kathryn had proposed the bet last week, she hadn’t anticipated how nervous she would be to watch Seven perform. Her stomach fluttered and her leg was bouncing without her consent. Everyone clapped politely as Seven reached the stage and Kathryn’s breath caught in her chest.

She looked radiant. Her hair was loose, her jeans were worn, and her white tee-shirt clung in all the right places. Kathryn was surprised by the cowboy boots and matching hat, but they worked really well with the guitar she carried.

Seven sat, arranging herself and the guitar with practiced ease. She pulled the microphone closer.

“I’m here tonight because I lost a wager with the captain. If you want to avoid the same fate in the future, I suggest you avoid playing Velocity with her.”

The room rippled with laughter and Kathryn saw Seven’s eyes brighten with the audience’s response.

“I found this song in the databases from a platform called YouTube. I hope you enjoy it.”

Seven’s fingers moved languidly over the guitar and when she sang her voice was soft and sparkling.

“ _Freckles and constellations,_

_All those cute conversations…”_

Kathryn’s mind jumped to all their late-night talks. The way the low light often softened their voices to whispers as they sat in her quarters.

_“The moon is bright, giving us light,_

_I really wanna kiss you and I think I might,_

_Filling up our imagination…”_

Seven was looking right at her. Her eyes trapped Kathryn’s and sent a tight coil of heat through her stomach.

_“Starry eyes and galaxy minds,_

_We’ll be dancing on the stars tonight._

_I’ll be yours to keep, just take a leap,_

_Cause this spaceship has a passenger seat…”_

Kathryn forgot about the rest of the audience. With the lights dimmed and stars streaking past the windows, they could be alone in space. It didn’t sound half-bad to Kathryn.

_“Woah oh oh, I’m starstruck,_

_Woah oh oh, no gravity for us…”_

Kathryn certainly felt like she was floating.

_“We’re intergalactic,_

_Thoughts full of static,_

_Woah oh oh, I’m starstruck, for you…”_

Starstruck was right. No one set Kathryn reeling like Seven did. She was held captive by the haunting beauty of Seven’s singing. By the words that Kathryn hoped were meant for her.

_“Midnight mumbles, but I’m distracted,_

_I like the way that you reacted,_

_A lunar eclipse at our fingertips,_

_Never had a moment that was quite like this,_

_My crazy world has been impacted…”_

Kathryn saw their relationship in every line of the song. The way they frequently clashed, how their talks stretched long-past when they should. The way Kathryn could never think clearly when it came to Seven.

_“We are so much more than space dust,_

_A supernova couldn’t break us…_

_We are so much more than space dust,_

_A cosmic wonderland of lust…”_

Liquid heat pooled below Kathryn’s belly. She tried to shake herself, snap herself out of this trance. She had to be suffering from the most extreme case of wishful-thinking she’d ever experienced. This was a song Seven was singing in front of an entire audience. This was not a serenade.

_“Woah oh oh, I’m starstruck, for you.”_

As the last chord vibrated into nothingness, the crowd burst into applause. Kathryn couldn’t move. Her eyes were still on Seven’s. Her skin was raised in gooseflesh and her breathing was rapid and shallow. Kathryn had to get out if the Mess Hall. She couldn’t stand this longing, this desperate desire. She got abruptly to her feet and turned to leave, finally snapping Seven’s eye contact.

But even as she marched down the corridors to her quarters, she still felt Seven’s pull.

* * *

The room was filled with applause, but Seven felt like the bottom had dropped out of her stomach. Kathryn left the Mess Hall, taking Seven’s hopes with her.

She’d been so sure this would work. That Kathryn would see just how much she meant to her. The room had fallen away whilst she was singing. It had just been the two of them. Clearly, she’d deluded herself. Kathryn didn’t feel the same way.

Seven felt exposed in the wake of her song in a way that she hadn’t whilst she’d been actually signing. She’d put her feelings out there—her wants, her desires. She’d shown Kathryn her soul only to have it rejected. Her chest felt tight and tears threatened to claw their way up her throat. She forced them back. She couldn’t cry now.

She left the Mess Hall, the cheers following her now sounded mocking and cruel, and started to walk back to Cargo Bay 2. It was the closest she could get to privacy on Voyager. The only place she could cry.

The doors whooshed open and Seven stopped in her tracks. Kathryn was waiting for her, sitting on the steps of her alcove.

“I’d planned to go to my quarters but, as is so often the case, I ended up here.”

Kathryn stood and walked towards Seven. Seven wanted to turn, to leave. The rejection was bad enough after her song. She didn’t need to hear it as well. But she couldn’t move. She stayed where she was, her tears finally spilling over.

Kathryn’s hand was warm against her cheek. Seven blinked rapidly, trying to clear away the fog of the tears clouding her right eye.

“Oh honey, what’s wrong?” Kathryn asked, her voice low and soft, barely a murmur.

“You left!” Seven managed after several long moments. “I poured everything I’ve learnt—all of my humanity—into that song and you left. Why?”

Kathryn’s fingers moved to Seven’s chin, lifting it gently so that their eyes met.

“That was for me?”

“Who else would it be for? Only you, Kathryn. It’s always only you.”

“It was beautiful. _You’re_ beautiful. The best of any of us. I left because I was sure it couldn’t be for me. How could someone so vibrant, so young, possibly love this dried-up, old Starfleet captain?”

“You are not dried up.”

“So, you _do_ think I’m old.”

Seven’s ocular implant quirked and a smile played at the corner of her mouth. “It depends on what you define as old.”

Kathryn pursed her lips.

“But I do love you, old or otherwise,” Seven said.

“And I love you, cheek and all.”

Seven’s lungs seemed to stop functioning at the words. But then air rushed in again, her heart sped up, her cortical node slowed.

“I think I’d like to kiss you now, Kathryn.”

“I think I’d like to kiss you, too.”

Stars exploded behind Seven’s eyelids as their lips met for the first time.

_I’m starstruck, for you._


End file.
